Tabati fire, 8 February 2025 Yoko, Tabati
The fire started on 8 February 2025 in Tabati, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,246 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Adamaoua since 2016 (of 233 with a page). Number 13 in Cameroon in 2025, of 396.
- Burnt area
- 6,246ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 8 Feb 2025 – 11 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 8 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 143
- in a single hotspot: 103 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 934MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,152 ha in 2016, 1,251 ha in 2019, 1,162 ha in 2020, 3,914 ha in 2021, 555 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,006 ha that had burned before.
- 2,327 ha Tabati fire, February 2021 4,017 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,586 ha Tabati fire, January 2021 2,556 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,251 ha Yoko fire, February 2019 1,444 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,162 ha Yoko fire, March 2020 1,491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 784 ha Tabati fire, January 2016 2,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 555 ha Yoko fire, January 2023 1,362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 368 ha Yoko fire, January 2016 1,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,522 ha reached on 9 Feb0.2 %
-
Tabati where it started2,766 ha reached on 8 Feb0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Feb | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Feb | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Feb | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Feb | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Feb after | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 14 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 143Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tabati fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 February 2025 and 11 February 2025: 4 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,246 hectares (62.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yoko (3,522 ha, 0.2 %); Tabati (2,766 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.